Going to Hokkaido
So I spent Christmas day in Tokyo, and the day after went to Hokkaido. I needed to take four trains to make it to Kushiro, my final destination. One of those trains was the bullet train. Except in Japanese it is not called the bullet train, it is called the shinkansen (新幹線), which means New Trunk Line. The name bullet train derives from the English translation of the construction project from the 1930s. The train travels at a top speed of 275 km/h, and I was able to cover 593 km in three and a half hours, but I didn't realize I was traveling that fast.
My destination, Kushiro, is not that amazing a city. It's a medium sized harbor town, and it is like the Japanese equivalent of Sudbury. I went to Hokkaido mainly to visit my friends who are stayng there for the break. But also if I didn't go I wouldn't see any snow this year, or have a miserably cold day, which would be strange. So I went. I met up with my friend Natalia in Kushiro. She was doing a two week homestay there and said there wasn't much to do. So we kind of just hung-out: went to restauraunts, ate some donuts, walked around. My hostel was in a nature preservation area, and it was very peaceful. It looks like a destination to return to in the summer for a short canoe trip.
For New Years I went to Asahikawa to visit my friend Arthur and his girlfriend Charlotte. Driving up from Kushiro through the mountains was really picturesque, everything from the trees to the roofs was covered white. Charlotte is an english teacher in a really small town called Biei, which is thickly covered with powder snow, and as soon as it gets dark turns into a ghost town. For New Years Eve Charlotte took us to a foriegner's bar called The Den, which is owned by this Australian guy who made his fortune in Japan on balloon animals. At 1 we went to a club in Ashahikawa filled with 40 to 50 Japanese people doing the STRANGEST FUCKING DANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN. That is the best way I can describe it, because I have no information about what it was or why the relentlessly continued to do it. It was kind of like Tae Bo, but only with flailing punches, and done rigorously to house music. I returned to Tokyo on the 2nd, and then attempted and failed to climb the Tokyo Tower again.
My destination, Kushiro, is not that amazing a city. It's a medium sized harbor town, and it is like the Japanese equivalent of Sudbury. I went to Hokkaido mainly to visit my friends who are stayng there for the break. But also if I didn't go I wouldn't see any snow this year, or have a miserably cold day, which would be strange. So I went. I met up with my friend Natalia in Kushiro. She was doing a two week homestay there and said there wasn't much to do. So we kind of just hung-out: went to restauraunts, ate some donuts, walked around. My hostel was in a nature preservation area, and it was very peaceful. It looks like a destination to return to in the summer for a short canoe trip.
For New Years I went to Asahikawa to visit my friend Arthur and his girlfriend Charlotte. Driving up from Kushiro through the mountains was really picturesque, everything from the trees to the roofs was covered white. Charlotte is an english teacher in a really small town called Biei, which is thickly covered with powder snow, and as soon as it gets dark turns into a ghost town. For New Years Eve Charlotte took us to a foriegner's bar called The Den, which is owned by this Australian guy who made his fortune in Japan on balloon animals. At 1 we went to a club in Ashahikawa filled with 40 to 50 Japanese people doing the STRANGEST FUCKING DANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN. That is the best way I can describe it, because I have no information about what it was or why the relentlessly continued to do it. It was kind of like Tae Bo, but only with flailing punches, and done rigorously to house music. I returned to Tokyo on the 2nd, and then attempted and failed to climb the Tokyo Tower again.
posted by Oliver Gatalo at 8:30 PM
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